The other day I went to a "Star Party". Basically, it's these little gatherings at the observatory hosted by my college for people to view the stars through some high powered telescopes provided by the astronomy professor. It was actually really cool. We were out in the middle of one of the many fields here at my college near the horse barn and no the smell didn't travel to where we were. It was really quite nice out and very quiet and extremely dark. It was the perfect place to see all the stars!
Well, we were able to view Jupiter and it's four moons. We were even able to see its orange colored gas ring! The professor pointed out to us many other interesting features of the starry sky such as constellations and nebulas. I was able to view the Orion nebula located on the "sword" of the constellation Orion and also the Crab nebula. The Crab nebula wasn't as impressive; it looked more like a gray smudge. However, it's really interesting to know that if the stars hadn't exploded and formed these nebulas and things that we wouldn't be here today!
Some of the constellations that were pointed out to us were Orion, Leo, Cancer, the little dipper, big dipper which is apparently part of Ursa Major, Taurus, Canis Major, and Canis Minor. What I find to be the most interesting is the mythology behind these constellations. I have a book that had some of the stories in it. He also told us how to find Polaris, the North Star, which I had assumed was much brighter than what it actually was. He also pointed out Sirius, the brightest star in the sky.
It was all quite amazing.
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